Trad Sight Picture for Gap Shooting

[u/Any-Boysenberry1517]

So I’ve been trying to transition away from pure “instinctive” shooting to gap shooting, and trying to figure out which sight picture works for me. I want to be able to align my string with the riser and place the tip of my arrow on the bullseye and hit it constantly, instead of aiming off the bullseye with indirect aiming. It’s looking like my string needs to align with the inside edge of my riser to do this, instead of trying to align the string with the middle of my riser like I see other people do. I also see other people ignore the string entirely, or only look directly down the arrow itself like a gun barrel, but I was told that aligning the string with a part of the bow riser would make me more consistent. I just want to know if I’m going about this the correct way. I want to put the tip of my arrow on the exact spot I’m intending to hit (the bullseye), and like I say it seems that placing the string on the inside edge of the bow riser is the place that happens.

[u/-Papadil-]

Everyone's preferences for sight pictures are slightly different, but finding consistency in your String Blur (where your out of focus string sits in your sight picture) is pretty important. Most archers I've spoken to follow the principle you have here, placing their string blur somewhere reliably replicatable on their riser.

If you want to maintain the ability to keep your point on target at different distances, you should look into String Walking and/or Face Walking as well. Those are both reliable methods of aiming using the tip of your arrow in order to avoid gap shooting.

[u/Any-Boysenberry1517 → u/-Papadil-]

I can’t string walk on my wooden trad bow without damaging the limbs unfortunately 

[u/-Papadil- → u/Any-Boysenberry1517]

That makes sense, so then face walking would be the way to go, pretty handy skill to have, it just becomes slightly more difficult to maintain back tension the higher your anchor goes

[u/ADDeviant-again → u/Any-Boysenberry1517]

So, a self bow? One piece wood?

I've actually donea little bit of that and if the bow is made correctly I don't think it would be a problem.

But if you're talking about a bow without a center cut riser and an actual shelf, Then that is exactly what is stopping you from aligning your string with everything else.

[u/Any-Boysenberry1517 → u/ADDeviant-again]

How would you go about aiming a self bow without a shelf and center cut riser?

[u/ADDeviant-again → u/Any-Boysenberry1517]

Well you mentioned indirect aiming, and you mentioned instinctive shooting. So those are two.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is that since the primitive equipment is not as precise, they go with any old arrow, and that's the wrong way around. Getting perfectly matched arrows and tuning them properly, if you want close groups, is even more important when a bow is not center cut.

Depending on how well I know the bow though I justure of the gun barreling gap style or instinctive. And I can't lie that forty two years of experience doing this helps me. If I have a bow that shoots four inches to the right like you mentioned, I can't even really explain how I do it. But, I MAKE it shoot where I want. It's hard to describe, but you don't aim right to compensate for hitting left. Oon the next shot, you just push it right. You make the dynamic alignment match the visual alignment.

If you're having trouble with instinctive shooting get up really close (6 ;feet) and shoot until your hand starts to compensate for what the eye sees. Do not look at your arrow. Do not try any aiming method. Force yourself to stare at the bullseye and shoot and shoot and shoot. You want perfect form on your grip, your front shoulder and arm, your anchor, and your release, and you want strong follow through.

After a few thousand shots without making any conscious adjustments, you will start to hit a little black dot drawn on a white background. Shoot at tiny spots like that Until you hit it or your right next to it every shot. Using purely instinctive form. THEN back up. That's all there is to it. But remember , instinctive shooting is the most demanding form of cutting , not the slappiest or easiest. It is based on an incredible amount of repetition, form, and high levels of focus.